doubleppk | [Open-ish Log]

Entry tags:

gokudera,
log

[Open-ish Log]

Who: Fujiko, Gokudera, possibly others who run into Fujiko (sub, Vongola, Roxas, or people with a reason to be there only please)
Where: Sub to Vongola.
What: Fujiko's smoking a cigarette and helping Gokudera who got his hand trapped.
When: After her date with Havoc, before picking up Lupin (Valentine's Night)
Why: She's emotional
Rating: PG-13 for language and Gokudera/Fujiko's respective tempers

Fujiko needed a cigarette break and now. The post was mortifying although she felt she was doing a decent job covering up the embarrassment. On the other hand, Havoc had managed to disarm all of the traps to her room, sneak in that morning and wake her up with a smile on his face. He'd gotten a boxing glove trap to the face for it, but when she realized it was Havoc and not Lupin they talked. She mentioned Lupin showing up at dinner and he hadn't been thrilled, but he wasn't saying much of what he thought of it.

She need a reality check. Her adopted little brother, however much he hated it. And that meant seeking out Gokudera. Where the hell was he anyway?

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Nodding wordlessly, Goemon followed her with little more to listen to than the hurried clack of stilettos and Yoshi noisily smacking on the biscuit and leaving a trail of crumbs, oblivious to the thickening tension in the air. Much was left unsaid between business partners; it was the way it had been for many years.

Concern manifested itself as a heavy, aching pressure in his chest, like a withheld breath. Lupin would be fine, the ronin reassured himself, squaring his shoulders; after all, his well-being was no longer in the hands of fortune, but in those of his friends.

“Mn.” Goemon murmured gravely in response. Not entirely knowing what to expect to see, he set foot into a room smelling of sleep and malaise, quietly approaching the bedside. "Lupin."

Lupin had been pillowed all the way up to the back of his neck and was for the most-part not feeling any of the pain he should have been. He'd been stripped down to his boxers and was lightly sheeted, though a fine layer of sweat glossed his cheek. A laptop was clutched under his fingertips, closed shut. Despite the obvious bandages around his torso he didn't look too bad. A step back from death than previously, at any rate.

Listless, unaware eyes caught sight of Goemon and regained some of their luster.

"Oi, Goemon..." he said in a dreamy voice, "Why do you have so many swords? I thought you only needed one...?"

In the light, Lupin’s skin gleamed with a pale, sickly sheen of sweat; Goemon saw the narrowing of the eyes, the gathering of the brows, the struggle to bring him into focus. Had he not been warned of Lupin's altered state of consciousness, he would have been perplexed and deeply troubled; it was distressing still, at a gut-level, to see a man of incredible genius with little presence of mind, almost child-like in his vulnerability.

“Sh.” He sharply, cut off his friend’s half-conscious slurring. “You must rest.” Discreetly taking a shallow breath, Goemon glanced back towards Fujiko, his gaze piercing as if with accusation. “Did you change his dressings?”

Lupin gazed over to the back of Goemon's head, a smile too soft for a Lupin crossing his lips, as though he were floating off somewhere else. "Goemon, be nice to Fujiko-chan... She's been taking good care of me..."

He looked at Fujiko. And then he looked at the Yoshi, shrugged, and pulled down his sheets. His barely-opened eyes strained to see the cloth rolled around his body. "These bandages are itchy, Fujiko-cha~n... Can I take them off now?" He fiddled with the silver clips, popping one to the floor.

"Of course I did!" Fujiko glared at Goemon, a little annoyed that he'd think she'd just leave Lupin there sick and making himself worse. "No, Lupin, stop that," she sighed, bending over to pick up the clips so that she could put them back in. "Honestly Goemon, I'm not a monster," she looked up at him from her bent over position next to Lupin's bed, dark brown curls shielding most of her face from Lupin while she mouthed for Goemon to keep an eye on the theif.

Goemon said nothing, having neither deliberately sought to insult her nor to elicit a defensive response. But, while his interrogative tone had been sharper than intended - arising from tension and semi-veiled worry - he did not attempt to explain himself. He decided it was better not to risk stirring up a petty argument for Lupin's sake as much as his own; in the end, he would need the energy and the focus to vigilantly keep watch.

He found himself a place to sit cross-legged by the bed-side, heaving an imperceptible sigh as he contemplated the long day ahead. While he felt it was needless for Fujiko to ensure that he would observe Lupin (perhaps she was reciprocating his perceived distrust?) Goemon simply bowed his head in a gesture of understanding, and let it be.

Lupin looked at the Yoshi nearby. "Goemon, there's a dinosaur in the corner of the room... Was there always a dinosaur in the room?" He reached toward it. "He~y, I think I'll call you Pops... Come here, little Pops..."

He looked back at Goemon, basically a bobble-head at this point. "Where's Jigen? I've been looking all over for him..." He ignored the Yoshi and flipped onto his stomach, looking under the cot.

"I need a shower. Can I go swimming outside?"

Fujiko sighed and flashed Goemon a grateful grin. She dusted her hands, batted her eyelashes and quickly placing a hand on Goemon's arm, passed him the morphine, antibiotics, and some of the bandage pins. "Your mess now," she grinned and left to dash away, as though passing off the reigns to a very excitable mustang. "If you hit too much trouble ask for Tsu.." she paused. Tsuna could not handle Lupin. None of them could. "Ask for Reborn." Good enough. "He's a baby but a hitman," she shrugged simply. "It makes more sense when you meet him." She headed for the door, doing what she did best and running away. "Ciao!"

Lupin threw his legs over the side of the bed at the sight of Fujiko running off. He actually had started swaying toward the door, determined to give chase.

"Aw, Fujiko-chan! Take me swimming with you!" His voice lacked the sensuality it normally would have had, replaced instead with genuine disappointment that he was going to miss a fabulous dip in the ocean.

Yoshi cocked his head and looked helplessly to Goemon for an explanation, but the ronin only shook his head dismissively, leaving it at that. Most of what dribbled out of Lupin’s mouth were errant thoughts with no coherent flow linking one to the next; after a few minutes of suffering to listen patiently to semi-conscious babbling, the ronin considered that it would be wise to tune out. That is, until Jigen’s name was mentioned.

It struck a chord of unease inside him, his chest tightening in spite of himself. He had surmised, from Lupin’s silence on the subject, that ill-fortune had befallen their friend, and that it was not yet appropriate to ask of him, in his condition. His friend now saved him the trouble of asking what he had verged on doing himself, burning with curiosity.

But before he could press the man for details, Lupin was up on his feet and drunkenly tottering after Fujiko. Lunging after him, the ronin was tempted to knock him unconsciousness with a swift, well-aimed blow to the back of the head, not strong enough to do any harm. Instead, however, Goemon looped a strong arm around Lupin - prepared to catch him if he keeled over - and dragged him back to the bed with little effort.

"You will lay still," He warned, unsmiling, "Or I will tie you down myself."

Lupin turned his head and stared very intently at Goemon as though the man had something on his face. Eyebrows creased, it seemed his brain was desperately trying to regain control of its own wit, and after a long drawn-out breath, he asked, "You're really here, right? Am I just talking to the walls?"

He leaned against the pillows, his shoulders squared as if intensely uncomfortable. He reached toward the empty corner of the room. "These bandages are itchy... Can I have a cigarette, Jigen?"

Knitting his brows at the dazed hallucinations, the troubling loss of touch with reality, Goemon pressed the back of his hand to Lupin’s forehead. His skin, while warm and sticky to the touch, was not feverish. Dropping his hand, the ronin slid it into his keikogi, withdrawing a tenugui a moment later. It was a square of patterned cloth he had once received as a gift, and which had served him numerous occasions as a makeshift gas mask, a handkerchief, and a bandage; he had not made use of it since it had last been washed.

“Yoshi.” Extending the cloth to the dinosaur, addressing him authoritatively and straight-faced, assured that he would understand his instructions. “I will need you to find a sink. Run this under cool water, and come back quickly.” Yoshi, listening with open-mouthed awe, nodded vigorously and took off, wandering the ship.

With nothing left to do but to wait, Goemon’s attention shifted back toward his convalescing friend. “I am here. Jigen is not, however. I was hoping you had some idea of where he may be.”

Lupin watched Yoshi vanish through the doorway, and then turned his half-damaged attention back to his samurai friend. His visage became distraught and filled with confusion and the outstretched hand fell to the bedside as his hallucination lost power. "Jigen's... not here..."

Clicking gears, then the faint dim light of a bulb in his head.

"Seperated... about 9 months ago..." He sagged down deeper into the cushions. "I agreed to help him with a job... Ship got sank... Seperated from him. Looked all over but I couldn't find his hat anywhere." He was about to look under the bed again, but realized he'd already searched there and instead took a gander under his pillows.

As he listened to the broken explanation - reading in between the breathless pauses - Goemon’s gaze sank, his eyes darkening in thought. Despite the cold, hollow feeling in his gut, he refused to allow the implications to unnerve him. Jigen had Lupin’s tenacious grip on life; his absence did not necessarily mean he had been - -

“I am sure he will be fine.” The ronin firmly replied, as much to reassure himself as Lupin. A pensive silence gradually coalesced between them; shutting his eyes, he was relieved that his delivery had been steadier than he felt it would be.

He decided, with a light sigh, that it was best not to torment himself restlessly entertaining different scenarios that could have befallen Jigen, and chasing his tail with 'what ifs'. Of greatest importance now was Lupin's recovery; afterwards, they could best determine what their next course of action would be.

Lupin stared at the wall for a moment, his eyes half-lidded. The hazy world he'd been wrapped had him trapped awfully good, but he wasn't entirely gone. He lowered his body into a curled position and rested his cheek against the soft bedding. The Jigen resting in the corner was suddenly hurting his heart.

"I'm happy you're here, Goemon."

And his eyelids finally fell shut, the dark corners of his mind keeping him preoccupied.

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[Open-ish Log]

Re: [Takes place the morning after.]

Re: [Takes place the morning after.]

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[OOC: Sorry for delete. XO]

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